Trek Factory Racing has one big focus left in the Vuelta a España set for Sunday’s stage 21 tomorrow - the final day of the three-week Grand Tour - when they will race for a sprint finish with Danny Van Poppel.

With that in mind, Trek Factory Racing entered stage 20 with two goals – use its three climbers to try and get in one final breakaway while the other four saved their energy for the final stage.

“The plan was to have our climbers in the early break and the other four surviving today and thinking about tomorrow,” explained director Dirk Demol. “There was talk about two different scenarios for today’s race. Everyone was talking that [Astana] would go full gas from the first climb to isolate Dumoulin, but I said in the meeting that I thought more they would wait until the third climb to explode the peloton, as the first climb was just too early. So when the explosion came on the third climb we were hoping to have someone in the early breakaway, and Haimar [Zubeldia] was there.”

Stage 20 turned into an exhilarating fight for the final podium and a remarkable show by one rider: Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) attacked from the breakaway and soloed for over 114 kilometers to take a well-deserved win.

In the early part of the 175.8-kilometer stage, Trek Factory Racing’s Haimar Zubeldia jumped into a 28-rider chase group, which caught the early breakaway and brought the total to 37 riders – but already up the road was Plaza.

“It was hectic, but I felt good at the start,” said Zubeldia. “There was a big breakaway and I moved with Popo [Popovych] and he helped me jump just at the right moment [to catch it]. But after it was difficult because there were a lot of good riders, I tried to not work hard, but it was impossible. When Plaza went I was thinking that it was too early, but he did a really impressive ride, alone the whole day. He won because he simply had really good legs.”

It was a day of constant climbing and descending with four tough category-one rated ascents to get up and over, and while Plaza held his lead all the way to the end the large breakaway group disintegrated behind on the third climb. So did the peloton containing the GC contenders.

“Fränk [Schleck] and Danny [Van Poppel] were caught up in a crash 5-6 kilometers in. They both were okay but had some damage to their bikes. Fränk looked good all day, and with the legs he had for sure he had the chance to be there in that large breakaway of 39, of course you never know, but we had to do a bike change and he was quite far behind when the game was on and so the opportunity was lost,” Demol said.

“So we only had Haimar up there, and it was nice to see him in a breakaway for the third time in this Vuelta, but he didn’t have the legs today that he did the other day when he finished second. But okay, it was good that we were again part of the breakaway.”

The third of the four tough climbs also became the undoing of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), where he lost the battle for the overall victory to Astana and Fabio Aru.

Using his teammates to set a fierce pace, Aru then attacked numerous times and finally unhitched the Dutchman; by the finish Aru gained well more than the six seconds he needed, finishing nearly four minutes ahead and leaping into the red jersey, while Dumoulin slipped out of the top three and off the final podium for good.

Haimar Zubeldia arrived with a group 2 minutes and 45 seconds after Plaza had celebrated his victory, while Fränk Schleck was next across the line, arriving with the red jersey group of Dumoulin.

The rest of the team safely finished the final day of climbing, and now turn their attention to a day they have anticipated since the start.

“They all came in very well, and now tomorrow is the last stage ending in a criterium-like finish. Of course we still have Danny here and we will do all we can to create a sprint and hope for Danny to win again. Why not?” Demol ended.